Setrice Clarke achieving beyond her years Achieving beyond her years Setrice Clarke

Nineteen-year-old Setrice Clarke from Mandeville, Manchester, is not your regular 21st century teen.

She has not yet received her CAPE exam results but has been accepted in three universities, two overseas and one local.

She has already set up her own foundation to help educate young children and she is the central Jamaica representative for the Office of the Children's Registry.

And, surprisingly, Clarke is not caught up with social media like her peers.

It therefore came as no surprise when last Thursday, Clarke received one of two Governor General's Achievement Awards for Manchester in the ceremony held at the Wembley Centre of Excellence in Hayes, Clarendon.

She began her journey to excellence by helping her younger brother, who had potential but was not settled, to prepare for his Grade Six Achievement Test exams.

She developed a free website with all his lessons and study guides, monitored him, and pointed out his areas of weakness to his teachers. He is now a student at Munro College.

Clarke told CENTRAL STAR that this led her to assist children in her Sabbath school class at church, and later, with the help of her friends, it blossomed to students of primary schools in her community.

"The SPC Helping Hands Foundation was founded when I was 17 years old. After I monitored my brother and saw his progress, my mother advised me to assist others at church and other schools. We held camps at Easter and Christmas time and gave reports to their teachers on their areas of weakness," Clarke said.

Focused on her mission

Although she has been accepted to attend universities in China, Canada and Jamaica to pursue degrees in the medical field, Clarke says her foundation will continue its work during their holiday breaks.

"This summer, we also plan to go to nursing homes and day care centres in the parish to assist with cleaning up and other work where needed," she said.

CENTRAL STAR wanted to know why in this day of Twitter and Instagram, Clarke avoids the cell phone.

She says she does not do well with distractions and thought it best to avoid the popular handheld device.

"I use the phone and tablet mainly to store past papers, to read and make basic calls," she said. "I do lots of self-help reading and I am not a fan of Facebook."

Clarke, whose work has also been recognised by the Rotary Club of Mandeville, says she once used Facebook to stay in touch with a friend who had moved away but stopped, as she prefers to have face-to-face conversations with her friends.

Her mother acts as her 'telephone operator', taking her calls and relaying messages. She is motivated by her mom, who is an educator, counsellor, motivational speaker, reading specialist and sole breadwinner since their father died seven years ago.